Comments

Polls are a feature that needs to be used with restraint if they are not to lose their impact, they need to stand out when an official poll, such as a members choice list, is run. Also, by past experience it's too easy for people to put provocative or offensive questions and responses up - rather than getting into arguments over what is or isn't legitimate it seems best to pretty much lock them down. We would allow polls in the Art Studio, for render challenges etc., as on the old forums.

Polls are a feature that needs to be used with restraint if they are not to lose their impact, they need to stand out when an official poll, such as a members choice list, is run.

Sorry Richard but with all due respect, what a load of goobledigobber. We've got dozens of stickies, archaic announcements and illogical thread sorting to make our lives miserable and we can't find anything around here. If the official polls must stand out, why not put official polls in ANNOUNCEMENTS or STICKIES?

Also, by past experience it's too easy for people to put provocative or offensive questions and responses up - rather than getting into arguments over what is or isn't legitimate

Again, I respectfully beg to differ. You're telling me we're not using a feature X because it can be misused, but how is this different from the forum itself where we can say anything we want and people always end up arguing? How is a poll with a offensive question/response any different from a thread with an offensive comment?

Cridgit, while I was composing my response to Richard off-line, you must have been reading my mind because you touched on the same points that I intended to make.
Even though it basically repeats what you wrote, I'm posting it below to reinforce the opinion.

Hi Richard,
Thanks for the reply, but I'm going to have to disagree with your reasoning (or who's ever reasoning it is).

1.

"Polls are a feature that needs to be used with restraint if they are not to lose their impact"

I do not believe that to be true. Official DAZ polls will most likely be placed in the Announcements section or stickied to the top of the forum, thereby getting plenty of attention. Having numerous user polls scattered through the various other threads would hardly distract from the DAZ polls.

2. "by past experience it’s too easy for people to put provocative or offensive questions and responses up"
In this regard, a poll is no different than a forum thread. If it doesn't conform to the forum's TOS then you delete it (I know that you are familiar with this procedure, since it seems to be your job to delete posts and lock threads).
If a topic is acceptable, then a poll based on that topic should also be acceptable.

The people running the forums don't want to support them. They really don't need a reason why.

Kendall

Then that's what they should say.
I'd accept that as an answer.
funny how when we have something breifly then it is taken away it becomes insatiably desirable
I am over uploading 800x800 animated gifs already
just want the YouTube video embed from the old forum back!
even the troll forums like something awful who I find dissing my videos by Google search and YouTube insight have that option.

funny how when we have something breifly then it is taken away it becomes insatiably desirable

Hi Wendy, its not about the desirability/necessity of the polls. Its about not a single thing working in this steaming pile of craps (that's a dice game, not a bad word - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/craps) and the one thing that somebody found a use for has been nuked. We're making a feeble, disorganized attempt to stand up for ourselves, so don't make us go after your videos ;-)

I'm all for polls, as long as it's recognized that if they're posted in a forum (resulting in a huge sample bias), they're a not truly valid test of opinion, especially if they show the results before all the responses have been gathered.

I guess the fear is that people will start topics such as "What should Daz fix first?" a) past purchase notification b) forum post order c) login bug d) PC renewal issues.... or whatever. Then people get all riled up over the results because we're socialized to believe that statistics are a more powerful form of evidence and should therefore carry more weight in decision making -- which may be true in some instances, but not when the stats quoted aren't all that valid. But the fact that someone could quote numbers, even bad ones, seems to make some folks more emotional, or self-righteous, and it would be inflammatory.

If polls were confined to fun questions, they'd be fine. But somehow, I just know there'd be a lot of threads that would need to be deleted because it's easier to participate in an inflammatory but anonymous poll than in an actual thread.

yeah Velvet Goblin, that WAS what my very recently deleted poll "forum desires" put up the first week was about!
but
hardly anyone posted in it
it was forgotten until I mentioned it in this thread and they shut it down!
I think a poll on who is hotter? M4, David3, Apollo Maximus or Hiro toon would get more responses ;-P

The people running the forums don't want to support them. They really don't need a reason why.

Kendall

Then that's what they should say.
I'd accept that as an answer.

Hehe, I was kind of thinking before I even opened this thread to read it, sometimes the best answer is the one parents have been using for countless generations (as inscribed in Egyptian hieroglyphics) "Because I said so!" Course, earlier man said it better even: "why..." "thunk" (insert picture with Mec4D's chars here) ;p

The people running the forums don't want to support them. They really don't need a reason why.

Kendall

This might be true if people had not created any polls, but once polls were created and then admins/mods deleted them, an explanation was rhetorically necessary and common courtesy to boot. And since we aren't 6 anymore, a "because we said so" just doesn't cut it.

DAZ never had user polls before, so why start now. There's plenty of other places where you can start a poll and then link to them.

Why would anyone take offence about such a trivial matter, it now feels to me that people are looking for things to be angry about.

Thats's my personal view.

There is nothing wrong with asking why polls aren't allowed. Just because one asks doesn't mean one is angry or that he or she is looking for things to complain about. In fact, it seem to me some are merely surprised that a feature that they liked, that worked (when so many other things did not) was suddenly taken away. It's a fair question. It doesn't really matter that is was not allowed before. After all, DAZ migrated their entire website here primarily to do things differently because the other software was outdated, gerry-rigged to the point of inefficiency, and limited future expansion. So I can see people expressing their desires and hopes for the new site.